daveo4EV
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- First Name
- David
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- Jan 28, 2019
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- Santa Cruz
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- Cayenne Hybrid, 911(s) GT3/Convertable
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I’ve been driving EV’s for nearly 7 years and have the following thoughts on EV charging and what your want in the car to maximize your charging options while traveling.
NOTE; this is the boy-scout approach and is over the top - but it is complete and it’s what I carry in the frunk of my EV’s (and the back of my Bolt) - you don’t have to do this, but it’s a fairly complete set of gear that you can carry with you so your charging options are maximized while traveling with your EV
Now I’ve had this ”full” kit for years, I have several EV’s but only one full road warrior kit - and move it from car to car based on which car I’m traveling in. while I love my kit and I’m very proud of my kit, I will 100% admit utilization is very very very low, and it probably un-necssary. However in 7+ years I have used the following items quite a bit:
Mobile EVSE while traveling
JDapter
NEMA 14-50 adatper
NEMA 6-50 adatper
NEMA 5-20 adatper - trickle charge overnight at various hotels & parking garages…slow charge but better than nothing overnight.
NEMa 5-20 extension cord
NEMA 14-50 extension cord
surprisinglly in 7+ years, none of the 30 amp adapters have had any utilization which I thought would be more common when I put the kit together - but it turns out I’ve just never used them.
anyways this is how you do it if you want to overkill your EV charging options for traveling - frankly a NEMA 14-50 EVSE is all you’ll need + JDapter + Fast Charging and you can drive most anywhere these days with an EV and charge.
NOTE; this is the boy-scout approach and is over the top - but it is complete and it’s what I carry in the frunk of my EV’s (and the back of my Bolt) - you don’t have to do this, but it’s a fairly complete set of gear that you can carry with you so your charging options are maximized while traveling with your EV
- Install a high quality EVSE in your home garage - the mandatory Taycan EVSE is an
excellent high qualityEVSEperfectfor home charging duty- leave this charger in the garage so you have a charger setup/ready to go for daily use
- like most EV chargers the Porsche one is simply a branded J-1772 charger and will charge most any other EV (including Teslas) - so this is a
greathome EV charger suitable for charging a Taycan and any other EV you, familiy or friends might bring home.
- Purchase a 2nd mobile EVSE to “live” in the car - this charger should have a wide range of plug-adapters to maximize your road warrior charging options - I recomend
the Porsche for this, but if you’d like to save some moneythe Tesla 32 amp gen-2 EVSE is less than $300 a great mobile charger with a wide range of NEMA plug-adapters- full kit of NEMA plug adapters, so you can charge at most _ANY_ electrical outlet you may encounter in north america
- the Tesla Gen2 EVSE (32 amp) + all the adatpers + JDapter or Tesla-Tap is less $$$ than the Porsche EVSE
- JDapter or TeslaTap- this is a nice pig-tail that will allow you to use any Tesla L2 chargers you might encounter in the wild - very useful and there are 1000’s of Tesla L2 chargers in the US (hotels, wineries, golf courses, businesses, post ranch inn) - this will allow your Taycan to use these wonderful L2 chargers - and sometimes businesses only have Tesla L2 chargers - no J-1772 - so this is a great option, and it’s small and light
- July 12th edit: changing my recommendation to 80 amp version of the JDapter - I've observed my Taycan can charge at 48 amps when provided with a 48 amp Tesla Wall Charger - and you might actually encounter one of these in the wild - and if you want to be fully "in spec" you shouldn't use a 40 amp adapter with a 48 amp Tesla charger - so you should get the 80 amp version to be full in spec and not overheat the adapter if you're using a 48 amp Tesla L2 charger
to my knowledge TeslaTap does not make an 80 amp version - so that means JDApter is the best choice. Tesla Tap does make a 80 amp adapter - that is recommended.- there are more 60 amp Tesla L2 chargers in the wild that you might imagine so this is a serious consideration for your road warrior kit - as always make the best decision for you armed with the latest information.
- High quailty NEMA 5-20 extension cord - 15 to 50 feet (your choice) - very helpful for trickle charging overnight at hotels and such.
- High quaiity NEMA 5-20R to NEMA 5-15P adapter - this allows you to use your NEMA 5-20 extension cord w/5-15 outlets (5-15 plugs are normal household outlets) - when using it this way make sure to put the NEMA 5-15 adapter on your EVSE so your don’t pull too many AMPS
- this avoids the need to have both a NEMA 5-20 & NEMA 5-15 extension cord - also since you are packing the 20 amp extenstion cord it's safe to use it with 15 amp plugs since it's a lower amperage than the cord is rated…it's bad to pull 20 amps across a 15 amp cable, but it's just fine to pull 15 amps on a 20 amp rated cable…
- High quality NEMA 14-50 extension cable - big and heavy - so length is your personal choice preference - but very helpful sometimes to reach that wonderful 14-50 plug that‘s just a bit out of reach of the 20’ foot EVSE range
Now I’ve had this ”full” kit for years, I have several EV’s but only one full road warrior kit - and move it from car to car based on which car I’m traveling in. while I love my kit and I’m very proud of my kit, I will 100% admit utilization is very very very low, and it probably un-necssary. However in 7+ years I have used the following items quite a bit:
Mobile EVSE while traveling
JDapter
NEMA 14-50 adatper
NEMA 6-50 adatper
NEMA 5-20 adatper - trickle charge overnight at various hotels & parking garages…slow charge but better than nothing overnight.
NEMa 5-20 extension cord
NEMA 14-50 extension cord
surprisinglly in 7+ years, none of the 30 amp adapters have had any utilization which I thought would be more common when I put the kit together - but it turns out I’ve just never used them.
anyways this is how you do it if you want to overkill your EV charging options for traveling - frankly a NEMA 14-50 EVSE is all you’ll need + JDapter + Fast Charging and you can drive most anywhere these days with an EV and charge.
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